We return - our burden follows
by We'reAllABitOdd
Summary: Ed and mustang are sent on a mission to capture a madman who is experimenting with a new type of human transmutation. However, not all goes to plan and they are sent back in time to Resembool - the place of the strongest memory between them - when Ed was only a child. Together they must try to return but they don't know how and Ed doesn't know if he wants to. Complete!
1. prologue

The sound of pounding boots as the two military personnel stormed up the stairs - even the constant clank of metal that accompanied them - was far less disconcerting than the clanging and grumbling of the man that they had came to arrest. That man was certifiably insane - he cackled and laughed to himself, pitchers of blood filled his shelves. That blood was what he had drawn the array in. It had raised more than a few concerns among the other residents of the apartments. That was where the visiting State Alchemists came into the picture.

They stood outside the man's door, frozen in complete horror as they watched the man in hopeless fear of what he was doing. It was a shock to the older of the two that the light coming from the transmutation - for he had never witnessed human transmutation before - was a deep crimson that clearly indicated danger rather than a pulsing, electric blue. To the other the light was too familiar - it reflected in his wide eyes and flashed off of the exposed chain of his watch as well as his belt buckle. It disappeared into his long coat - the older finally realised why he wore it so religiously.

A murderous cackle echoed throughout the sparse room, effectively drawing both from their thoughts in an instant. They dove forwards in unison, shoving the haggard man - still laughing - out of the glowing array, still unidentifiable, drawn on the floor in drying blood. He fell, seemingly in slow motion, crashing into the shelf full of the pitchers of blood that he had collected - triggering the descent of litres of haemoglobin upon his head. He screamed - high, clear and unhuman - as it pooled around him and the ceramic pitchers shattered. Within moments he was out cold.

The mission was a success - demobilise the target in anticipation of the collection squad - though that success had came with a cost. In saving the man's life and prohibiting his movement they had endangered themselves. The light flickered a final time and they found themselves being broken apart, quickly and cell by cell, in a way one had experienced before. In fact, to the younger alchemist, the whole experience was rather eerily familiar. To the point at which it left him longing once again for the warm embrace of his long - deceased mother.

Then there was the flashing of image of the gate and the Truth. Truth's grin widened and he waved his one human arm. He said one thing "Back again Mr Alchemist?" Before the pair were pulled back by the black hands as though they were a single entity.


	2. Strangers with common memories

It was the middle of the night when I heard the electric cackle and the loud, dull thud coming from the study. careful not to wake the boys as they slept - though I doubted I could if the noise from the study didn't - I made my way there. I opened the door quickly and froze at what I saw. Laying strewn across the books Ed and Al had left on the floor when I had rushed them to bed were two very human figures - indistinct in the darkness. I switched on the lightbulb. The figures lay face down, one with short black hair, clothed in a military uniform, the other wearing a red coat with a gold braid (the same shade as Edward's hair). I had to stifle my gasp as I saw them - unconscious on the floor of what was once my partner's study. The blonde one was short, I couldn't imagine them being past their teens. My maternal instinct made my heart pang - I got the blanket from the corner that I often used to drape over my sons when they fell asleep while reading and draped it over them.  
I left them as they were - they didn't appear injured or distressed and their breathing was deep and even, as though they were asleep - and headed to my bed. I tossed and turned but, despite my best efforts, I could not lull myself to slumber. There was imminent worry at the forefront of my mind for the strangers asleep on my floor.  
When morning came I made the boys breakfast and sent them to school - Edward with a large book he had picked up on alchemy in his little hand - without a word about the strangers in our study. Slaving over the stove as I waited for them to awaken was a rather welcome distraction from the absurdity that had seemed to surround me completely in the space of a mere few hours. The second they left I let my façade drop and ran to the study. As I went to turn in the door I slipped and fell. The military man opened the door, eyes wide with concern, and asked me if I was okay as he offered me a gloved hand. As I accepted it and was pulled to my feet I noticed a transmutation circle sewn in red onto the back of his hand.  
The concern faded as I dusted off my skirt, replaced by curiosity. "Trisha Elric?"  
"How do you know my name?" A well of worry built in my stomach and I felt myself backing up subconsciously.  
"Please, come into the study. I think that we have a better explanation in there than I can offer to you verbally." He opened the door sheepishly, gesturing into the space. I was met with the sight of the back of the teenager's head as they sat cross legged on the floor, intently focused on the large open book that sat on their lap. The braid was neater than it had been last night, I suspected that it had been redone, and the red coat lay folded neatly to the side of the reading figure who instead wore a cropped, black, high collared jacket.  
"Fullmetal!" The man snapped, the kind tone that he had used with me gone, replaced with a hint of irritability. The figure did not respond (also, what sort of name was Fullmetal?) and the irritability displayed in the man's posture increased tenfold "Oh for the love of-" He muttered as he strode to the figure, forcefully removing the book from their grip (I still was not sure of the figure's gender). The figure froze for a moment before hissing "Colonel Bastard, what the hell do you want?"  
"Your attention. Why on earth are you reading a book in Xingese?" I watched as he eyed the pages of foreign symbols with confused displeasure.  
"Because that was the language that it was written in." The boy - for his voice was rather decidedly masculine - spoke in a tone that suggested that he was conversing with someone who was rather lacking in the intelligence department.  
The man drew in a breath "Fullmetal, you said you recognised the house, there's something else I think you might recognise."  
The boy span quickly, with an irritated huff illustrating his movement. As he turned his braid came with him, whipping him in the face. Though that failed to affect him as he stared at me and I stared back. His colouring was the familiar, unique one that belonged only to my eldest son and the shape of his features - though his face was leaner and older and his eyes so desperately sadder- were of the same nature. The same thin eyebrows lowered in a permanent scowl that indicated both extreme focus and made him look far older than he was. His eyes were the same, slanted and catlike - though hardened to such an extent I was scared that they would turn me to stone should he decide that he was angry with me for whatever reason. Just as my Edward did this boy looked like a child of Xerxes - like Hohenheim.  
We gaped at each other in stunned silence for a rather drawn out while. Our surroundings appeared to melt around us, leaving us in a blank, non-descript space that allowed us to focus strictly on each other's, supposedly familiar, faces The only sound to penetrate that silence was the combination of our breathing and an unexplainable metallic clanking. His oddly sharp canine gripped onto his lower lip and his brows furrowed, his slanted eyes thinning rather noticeably. he looked as though he was considering something. Then he clearly came to a concise conclusion. At once the spell was broken by the obnoxiously loud protest of an aged floorboard underfoot - a militaristic boot to be precise - and a muttered word in the same voice as earlier but softer, lower and disbelievingly breathier.  
"Mum?"


	3. Distantly familiar

My own breath hitched – catching in my throat in a violent manner. It was difficult to imagine – seeing your son, barely into school, standing in front of you, maybe fresh out of it. I didn't know how to feel about my son, _Edward,_ he didn't look like the teenagers was used so seeing in Resembool in any respects at all. "Ed?"

He nodded meekly, in such a way that it was only noticeable when all your attention was focused on him. That mine was. A smile akin to that of _my_ Edward spread across his features, only slightly there but, nevertheless, present. I felt the muscles of my face pull in such a way that it suggested that my own expression was mimicking his. In my periphery, I could barely make out the shape of a blue and black blur – surely the military man – leaving the room discretely, slipping out of the door like a ferret.

I reverted my full attention back to the face of my son, fully intending to gawk at him smiling once again, but his expression had changed. There was desperation printed with distinct clarity across his face as he continued to stare at me unwaveringly. As a mother, there was something unsettling about that look, that expression carried with it a sense of dread that flooded my core.

He spoke a single sentence that, simultaneously, told me everything and absolutely nothing that I needed to know. "Is this – are you – real?" I held my arms out awkwardly, not sure quite how his teenager would act when compared to the current Edward – he began to tighten his already crossed arms over his chest shuffling his feet and staring at the ground. I was beginning to think that that my offer of an embrace was being rejected, though I soon found out differently. He shuffled his feet towards me and gently pushed himself into my chest like my little Edward would. My arms enclosed him and the tenseness that was spread throughout his entire body depleted somewhat.

"Can you tell?" I asked into his hair, his very long hair. He nodded, his forehead moving against my nose very gently. He seemed all subtlety in his actions towards me – as though I were a very familiar stranger – but his actions towards the military man seemed anything but – there was a sense of familiarity that came with their interactions. The way that he presented himself aesthetically did not match my perception of him, though it did match what I had seen of him and the man whose name I'd really have to find out. My son was treating me like a porcelain doll and I was left to wonder why, terrified to ask why I just continued to hold him to my chest. Then he stepped back, leading with a heavy footstep from his left.

He smiled at me once more before changing both his expression and dominant personality traits in an instant to call back the man "Mustang!" I made a note to remember that name.

"You done in here, Fullmetal?" There was that name again, it made absolutely no sense to me, however.

"Duh, why else would I be calling at your sorry ass to come back here?" The casual profanity did not sit right within me but it seemed wrong for me to scold him – it seemed as though he spoke the way he did consistently so I had to assume I had, at some point, given him permission to use them.

"Took you long enough." Mustang said as he wandered carelessly ack into the room "You haven't explained anything yet, have you?" The last question was very much accusatory.

"How would you expect me to do that? I don't know myself – at least not entirely."

"Did the circle mean anything to you?" I was cut out of the conversation abruptly as it reverted to talk about their time.

"Bits of it – but aren't you the one wo always brags about his alchemical superiority?" It was Ed's turn to sound accusatory, a strong undertone of mocking acing his voice. I struggled not to laugh.

"In _my_ own area but you're better all around – as much as I hate to admit it." He really did appear to hate the words he bitterly uttered.

Ed laughed evilly "Oh, but I love to hear you say it – old man!"

"You're a bit of a sadist, aren't you? No matter, I'm sure that you'll find yourself _short_ of remarks soon." The unnecessary stress that he put upon the word short seemed to burn away at was already revealing itself to be a rather short fuse contained within my teenage son.

"Who are you calling short! I'm not short you're just a giant! Call me short one more time and I'll have to call you an ambulance, bastard!" he continued to seethe and mutter incoherent obscenities and insults, shooting fiery glares this way and that – the anger at being called short most certainly fit the Edward that _I_ knew.

"Oh, shut it Fullmetal." Needless to say, he did not. "Oh, come one! How am I meant to calm you down when I don't have Hawkeye here to threaten you?"

"Threaten me? As far as I remember _you're_ the one she likes telling off – if the bullet holes in your office are anything to go off."

 _"_ _Bullet holes_!" I yelled, suddenly very concerned. At that moment, I became very much integrated in the conversation again, treated as though I were a mine (rather a change from being treated like fine china).

"No?" The answer was presented by Mustang, so clearly in a way so unconfident that it appeared to be a question.

"Then why would you have said so?"

"I work for the military as a colonel and my lieutenant likes to fire her gun at me when I don't do as I'm meant to. Your son often visits my office and is able to see the aftermath."

"That brings me another question," They both winced visibly at the phrase that opened my next sentence "How do you two know each other?"

They stiffened and silenced, their heavy boots not even making a sound as they slunk backwards towards the door – it appeared that they were practiced in moving in such a way. "Well?" I challenged, hands on hips and eyes trained on them as they halted.

"We trained under the same alchemy teacher." The answer was quick and it came from Edward's mouth – I was unsure whether it was a fact or a lie. They may well have hidden it as it implied that Edward had left me – probably school as well – a few years earlier than typically acceptable, but, had it been the truth, they may not have been so willing to concede the fact after their initial reactions to my query.

"Okay, I'll accept that for now." I eventually had to concede as it appeared trying to get any further explanation was similar from trying to draw blood from a stone "But how did you get here?"

"Miss Elric it would do you good to sit down as we tell you, may we travel to the kitchen?" Mustang clearly had to entirely different personalities, there were two sides to the coin – so to speak.

"I'll make you some tea, mum." With that Ed and I led Mustang through the house familiar to us both. Mustang looked around as though examining every nook and cranny of the house, trying to gauge _something_ about the area in which his accompaniment had been raised for whatever reason. Ed looked around as though he couldn't believe that he was seeing what he was. A we passed the corkboard hat was home to the polaroid pictures taken of family and friends Ed glared at Hohenheim's unsmiling face – seen only in the picture where he was holding a smiling infant Ed far from his body with extended arms.

I opened the door to the kitchen and took a seat next to Mustang as Ed made a beeline to the counter where both the tea leaves and mugs were held. In a matter of a few minutes he had stopped bustling around the kitchen with much familiarity and set three mugs of steaming tea on the table ahead of us before taking his own seat.

"Explain." I stated boldly, finding the authority I expressed only with my sons and using to its fullest potential. They shrank in their seats before hesitantly beginning their story.


	4. Of taboo and rebounds

The scientific terms associated with alchemy meant nothing to me at all but the entirety of the conversation was completely terrifying as a parent of one of the participants. They had tried to save a man's life but had been sent back in time. There were a couple of questions that continued to gnaw at my mind, however.

"How did you happen to come across this man?" that was the most prominent of the two, I was scared that they had been scouting trouble.

"We were visiting a friend who lived in the same building. There was quite the ruckus and it just seemed right to intervene as it was obvious that no one knew shit about alchemy. Of course, our friend was no help – he swears that alchemy is voodoo, it's the most annoying thing."

"You'd think that Hughes would decide that alchemy makes at least some sense seeing as he knows so many alchemists but apparently not."

"Okay – at least you weren't looking for trouble."

They both laughed. "Fullmetal doesn't look for trouble, trouble looks for Fullmetal."

"Speaking of, why do you call Edward Fullmetal?"

They both stared forwards as though I were speaking another language, in fact – in an attempt to through off my question – Edward began to speak what I could only assume was Xingese. I sent a stern look towards him and he seamlessly switched to another language that meant nothing to me.

"Edward!"

He reluctantly began to speak in Amestrian once again "It's kind of a long story." He relented.

"I've got plenty of time." I challenged with a raised eyebrow.

"Then I'll let mustang take the reins." That statement was met with a look of unadulterated horror – what future did my son have to live in? – I think I left something in the study."

The statement sounded truthful and he appeared happy that it was. Their hesitation to answer questions was suspicious, they probably didn't realise that it made the entire situation worse for them.

His hands were folded on the table top – wringing together nervously. "I'm a state alchemist, Miss Elric: Colonel Roy Mustang, the flame alchemist."

"What does that have to do with what you call my son?"

"He trained under my teacher, she was strict – famous for producing future state alchemists. Obviously, I specialise in fire alchemy. Your son, however, Is a specialist by no definition. He is fully an alchemic genius – a prodigy if you will. He tends to run errands and has become known in the area for his work with metal – Fullmetal. Should he ever become a state alchemist it is likely that name will stick with him."

I was about to reply but Edward made a re-entry. It took me a moment to realise what he had picked up from the study. There was nothing in his hands and he still was not wearing his coat. But then I noticed, a silver chain was clipped onto the thick belt clasped around his slim waist. The chain disappeared into his pocket, causing a large lump in the leather.

"A watch?" I asked him.

"Yeah." He replied simply as he retook his seat and downed the entirety of his ta despite the fact that it was still scalding hot.

"You actually left your watch? That's unlike you."

"It came unclipped from my belt in the fall. Speaking of watches," He turned to me "Al and I – Ed, whatever – should be back from school in half an hour. What should we tell them? I don't think that we should tell kids about whatever the hell this shit is."

I couldn't help but think that he was still a kid, standing there in front of me. That he, too, should know nothing of what could go wrong when it came to alchemy. "I agree, but what could we say?"

"I don't know. Tell them that we're old family friends who came to visit. Of course, you'd have to tell Granny the truth but it's the best of many bad options."

"Who is 'Granny'? I thought that you didn't have any family outside of the ones that I know about." Mustang asked

"Pinako Rockbell." He offered in return.

"Winry's grandmother?"

"That's the one."

"Okay, we've still got time and I still have one more question."

"Go ahead." Mustang smiled at me in a way that unsettled me slightly, earning himself a glare worthy of the gorgons from my son.

The glare was accompanied with a single word "Don't." It was steely and overtly calm – it was even more unsettling to me than the smile despite me not being the intended recipient.

"Okay, continue." The overwhelming air of cockiness that filled mustang's tone had thinned considerably.

I smiled at my son, he looked proud of his ability to shake the man so much "How did you two end up here? You were at an apartment building in Central, how did you end up in Ed's childhood home in Resembool?"

"We don't know." Ed exhaled, no hesitation whatsoever. "That circle was weird, I recognised most of the symbols but in combination many shouldn't have worked, I don't see how this reaction was abound - I don't see how he could beat the laws."

"Do you suspect that he suffered a rebound?" mustang sked upon seeing the downtrodden face Ed had adopted.

"Probably." Ed confirmed quietly. "human transmutation of any kinds is taboo and rightfully so. You know what it can cost you – every alchemist worth his chalk does."

"But what could the rebound be?"

"I don't know – I don't think people get sent back in time very often, or ever. Could be a lost limb, could be a lost sense, could be a lost life. We just don't know."

"Taboo, rebounds – what are you two talking about?" I yelled, very much tired of being excluded from the conversation.

"Alchemically meddling with human life – human transmutation as we call it - is a crime punishable both by the laws of our nation as well as the laws that govern the science in which we specialise." Mustang sopped speaking and, as though it were rehearsed, Ed continued.

"A rebound is what happens when you try to meddle with the laws, when you try to play God. Most often people lose their lives to their foolishness, but that's when they try to resurrect the dead. I doubt anybody knows the consequence of time travel, he could be dead or he could just be missing something that he had had up until now, whatever the governing force of alchemy deems equal. Some alchemists just don't realise that they are not Gods, gods do not exist – your sins might never be forgiven."

My eyes were wide there were tears running down my cheeks. Through the burn in my throat I croaked a single word and began to wish that I had never asked "Oh."

 **A/N I did mean to have this updated yesterday but I was binge watching the entirety of Haikyu! Over three days. As always, I hope that you enjoy the update and I'd like to thank anyone who has read, reviewed, favourite or followed. The traffic graphs are crazy - it's hard to believe that people outside of the UK and the USA are reading my story. these A/N's won't be common so I just want to thank you all now. I'll reply to any reviews - constructive criticism is always welcome. Thanks again.**

 **~We'reAllABitOdd**


	5. Plans of deception

Their words resounded in my head, the silence that had shrouded us was deafening. The two just stared at me with worrying eyes, their expressions startlingly calm as though they were very much used to both giving that explanation and receiving the reaction that I had supplied. At last, a single, shaky word pierced the silence – completely unsure as it emerged quietly from Ed's slightly parted lips "Mum?"

"I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay," the repeated words morphed into something of a mantra that I chanted as I bowed my head and placed it in my palms, eyes shut tight.

"You're not." The two alchemists told me confidently, the negativity actually reassuring.

"People unfamiliar with our science don't realise what the repercussions of trying to break its laws are, even some who are familiar don't seem to care if they want something enough," The look mustang sent discreetly to my son as he spoke was unsettling, to say the least "People do not wish to believe that that which they consider miraculous is as dangerous as it has the potential to be. Alchemy from the view of an onlooker is completely different to that of a practitioner."

I nodded my understanding, again wishing that I had never asked.

"But how can you talk so calmly about that? About the fate of the man that bought you here?"

I was surprised when Edward answered and shocked at how he did. "Mum," He seemed to be saying that word at every chance he got, as if cementing its existence "We aren't calm, we aren't trying to be heartless. We want to know what the repercussions were, whether the governing forces of alchemy will punish him or the governing forces of Amestris will. It's scientific curiosity – you can't be calm when you're talking about such a matter but you can look at things with a clear head and form a deduction – you can lie and pretend that you are level headed, still."

"But how can you pretend?"

"We can practice." Edward relented with an uneasy face, his slanted eyes down cast, eyebrows drawn in and nose scrunched up slightly.

I nodded and stood, both of the alchemists followed suit. I went to pick up the mugs of tea but Edward beat me to it, zipping around the kitchen like a little lightning bolt (though I knew far better than to call him little) as he collected the mugs before I could even comprehend what was happening. He rushed them to the sink and turned on the tap, removing only his left glove and washing them only with that hand. Mustang gently led me from the kitchen and into the living room – I found that my legs were still shaking, my knees knocking together beneath the skirt of my dress. Edward joined us a moment later – taking a lazy look at his pocket watch before returning it to his pocket (he never once allowed me a glimpse of the back of it).

"10 minutes." He concluded. "have we got any ideas on what to say when Al and I come home from school?"

It was weird to her someone talking about themselves I the way that he was "Should we go with the family friends story? We don't have much else that we can say." I answered.

"Nor do we have time to think of a better cover." Mustang continued.

"It's settled then." Ed confirmed "But you're still going to have to go and tell Grannie, mum." There was the word again, brushing past his lips uncertainly and dazedly, completely differently to how he said the word 'Grannie'.

"Agreed." I said simply as I stood and left, on my way to collect Pinako and bring her back to my house so that the alchemists could explain the story completely – no doubt with the use of terms I could have no hope of understanding.

The weather outside was blisteringly hot, the sun scorching down on the dry grass of our little village unrelentingly. It looked as though it would be a bad year for the crops – that meant it would be a bad year for the entirety of Resembool because we lost a great deal of income when that happened. I knocked on Pinako's old door not a moment after leaving my own, getting a response from the tiny woman nearly instantaneously.

"Trisha! The kids will be home soon! Is something troubling you?" She spoke in a single breath.

"You could say that. Please come over."

"Are you okay, you're sure?" She asked as we began to leave her house and head to mine.

Once we reached the house Pinako looked at the two strangers on the sofa, one dressed like a military man and the other clothed entirely in black – the majority of that black being leather – with the most distinctive colouring that she was very familiar with, the look on her face spoke volumes.

"Trisha, what's going on here?"

I seated her next to Edward – it seemed like a better idea to place her next to the rebellious teenager than the soldier -and began to explain with a fair amount of help from the alchemists. It was oddly reassuring to know that I wasn't the only one who was completely at a loss when it came to what the boys in the room would surely consider basic alchemy.

By the end of our explanation Pinako's expression was a rather good indicator as to what mine must have looked like. In any other circumstance the morphing of her features, for they appeared to change into rather cartoony proportions with the extremity of her expression, would have triggered an onslaught of hilarity from most any crowd. Her eyes fluttered with a series of rapid, hard blinks as if she were trying to clear some kind of haze from in front of them.

"You're Edward Elric?" She asked finally to the teenager.

"I am." He clarified as he took her hand and spoke in a reassuring tone "Grannie, we don't know what's happening much more than you do but I promise that I'm still Ed – the same one that you know now and definitely the same one you will know then."  
"What year are you from?" It was shocking to me, how quickly her initial shock had subsided into something bordering the line of curiosity.

"1914." Mustang answered confidently, he probably knew the Pinako of their time and – given the woman's age – her appearance could not have changed to an extremity in a decade.

"We're not to tell the children, are we?" she confirmed.

"I don't want to change the way that they think of alchemy or the future, I don't want to change anything too drastically. We don't know what will happen and I don't wish to find out, sometimes experiments aren't worth the outcome and this is coming from the mouth of a scientist. Any experiments involving lives are morally corrupt – I am no Tucker and I vouch never to so much as venture into the same realm as the one in which he worked." Most of what he said was rather reassuring, he valued life (though why he put so much stock into it was worrying) but the declaration he made about 'Tucker' held no value to me as I didn't understand what he was talking about.

However, it obviously meant something to mustang "You are nothing like that criminal!" He spat the words like venom, malice and aggression lacing his tone – it would appear my son was not the only one capable of presenting himself frightfully.

"Damn right I'm not! I won't be, what he did was unforgiveable and I'm not about to come close to anything like it!" his own tone was violent but it appeared the problem at hand was temporarily resolved and the kids would be leaving school at any moment. Pinako got up to leave, doing so with a final wave. I left to the study, collecting a few books to occupy Ed and Al as it was the only spare space that we had and I had to make it into a suitable living space for our guests.

As I left I heard a single word, a morose, lamenting whisper "Nina."


	6. The meeting

The boys rushed into the house, their little legs moving with such ferocity that they could only be racing each other. Ed won. The older Ed was sitting with his legs crossed, amidst a stack of books – as he had been that morning before I came to talk to them – reading with patient focus that did not at all match what I knew of the teenager. It did not take long for the boys to notice the two strangers – both at ease – in the room.

"Ed, Al – these are Edward and Roy, they're old family friends who are visiting us for a while."

The introduction to Mustang went smoothly, with handshakes and unsure small talk – as he sat at the table and lazily doodled a couple of transmutation circles on a piece of scrap paper. Edward, however, was another story. The boys found it funny that he was so immersed into this reading that he was completely unresponsive to anything happening outside of the pages. There was a look of admiration combined with that amusement, though. I looked closer – the pages were turning at an incredible speed so it was hard to see much – I could make out a few doodles of transmutation circles that seemed to have been there for years as well as pages full of foreign syllabary that made no sense to me.

Mustang sensed our problems and strolled over easily. He plucked the book from the boy's loose grip and watched in amusement as he stared at the space where the book had once been in confusion for a moment. Mustang scrutinized the book.

"I don't even know what language this is, Fullmetal." He declared, and, as Ed opened his mouth to tell him he continued "Nor do I care." He was sent a look that radiated pure evil and it felt right to intervene. Watching the two Ed's interact allowed for an in-depth view of the contrast between the Ed that I knew and the one that I was beginning to. The height was the first thing – they were both what you would consider short but he older Ed was clearly growing more towards average height. Their features and expressions, too, had changed over the passage of time. Those belonging to the older were more extreme and severe, it was not uncommon for me to hear that my son was like his father, made of severe expressions, lines and an infrequent personality (though they never outright stated the latter). That became more apparent as he aged, apparently – it was easy for me to imagine his hair tied back into a ponytail like Hohenheim's always was, his square-ish jaw exposed and glasses balanced on his nose. His shoulders were broader now that he was older and his features were sharper, harsher.

Unless he had had an extreme change of heart other the last ten years (I very much doubted it) he would not have been too pleased about his comparability to his father. It was not the sort of thing that sat well among the people of the village either – "Those two little bastard children, the older one looks just like his father. Whatever was their mother thinking?" – I'd heard it all and was fairly certain that Ed had too. Ed hated his father – hated him for leaving, hated him for never marrying me, hated him for existence.

"You look like brother!" Al exclaimed suddenly.

The older Ed laughed and said in such a convincing way that I almost found myself believing him "Do I?" Al nodded his response, his short hair falling to hit his face. Al could escape his reputation as a bastard child far more easily than Ed, his colouring was darker, bordering more on brown than Aurelian, and his features were a combination of mine and his father's.

"What are you reading?" Al asked, quizzing the teenager as he continued to sit on the floor among his pile of books.

He laughed again, the sound was somewhat foreign to me, his voice far deeper than it had ever been when I heard that laugh "Nothing as of now, Mustang stole my book." He sent an accusatory look at the man in question.

"You're not getting it back, you'd recede back into Ed-Land."

"Recede, like your hairline, old man?" I giggled behind my hand as Mustang stared on, affronted. "And Ed-Land, really? That's the lamest thing I think I've ever heard you say, which is an insult in the highest order."

"You are like brother!" Al insisted again (I noticed that little Ed had picked up one of the few books in the room that was written in Amestrian, one older Ed had read before they got home) "You even have the same name!" Ed smiled, an expression that seemed unfamiliar to his face, exposing his sharp canines in a way that made him appear almost feral. I couldn't help but notice the way that Ed looked at Al, his voice was clearly familiar but his appearance shook the teenager just as much as mine appeared too. He clearly wasn't alone. Mustang sent looks towards Al at every chance he got – as if processing something that he never thought he'd so much as attempt to.

He seemed to be absorbing all of the details of Al's appearance with a touch of disbelief. He had gone silent at some point during the meeting and was – instead – just staring as though in a daze. He said something along the lines of "Pinch me." Before sharply knocking a hand against his leg and squeezing his eyes tight – the dark irises disappearing behind pale eyelids that wrinkled underneath his scrunched brow – "Didn't work." He declared aloud, eliciting a laugh from the person in the room most familiar with him.

"You're just now realising this?" He asked. I didn't doubt that the boys were confused by the short exchange of words happening between the guests.

"So, how was school?" I asked the boys in an attempt to draw the conversation away from the direction in which it was headed.

"Easy, as always." Little Ed answered bluntly, not trying to hide behind the answer of "fine" that I often heard other mother's complaining about receiving. He snapped the book closed and moved it from his lap, turning his attention fully to our 'guests' for the first time.

"You're alchemists?"

"Yup." Mustang answered as Ed was distracted with Al (It seemed like it pained him to look at the boy too much, for whatever reason) "I'm a state alchemist and Ed's training under my teacher."

"What's your speciality?"

"Flame alchemy."

"Your gloves, you produce friction and use these arrays to amplify it?"

"Got it in one."

I walked into the kitchen and began to prepare the stew for dinner – it was the only way that I would ever be able to get my eldest son to consume milk (you'd think that one so smart would know that he needed the calcium) – dwelling uncomfortably on the way that they had reacted around Al and thinking back on the way that Ed had reacted when he first saw me.

Something had happened, something that they hadn't told me. I was going to find out just what that thing was!


	7. Getting careless?

The declaration of the commencement of dinner was met with only positivity.

"When did we last eat? I think that I skipped dinner before we came here, I'm starving."

"Why did you skip dinner? Even if you didn't know what was going to happen I'm fairly certain Al would have tried to stop you."

"You dragged me away to _the apartment building_ without warning while Al was on the phone to Winry! But, tell me what I _should_ have done, Colonel shithead!"

There was comfort to be found in the words as well as maternal worry. At the very least I knew that my younger son was also alive and well and hat the boys remained in contact with their childhood friend. "You haven't eaten in an entire day? I should have made you breakfast this morning! Also, kindly watch that vulgar tongue in front of the children, I'm still not sure where or why you developed it but I'm going to have to ask you to suppress it."

"Jeez!" Ed exclaimed.

"All due respect Miss Elric, but Al hasn't allowed even Ed to corrupt him thus far and I'm fairly certain that, knowing Fullmetal, it's probably too late anyway."

"You didn't know me!"

"But I do now."

I intervened before it became violent, moving my hands through the air in what I hoped would be seen as a calming gesture. "Settle down. Just watch your tongue and go and eat."

The fifteen-year-old's face upon seeing the stew I had prepared was an incredible reward for the hard work I had put into it but it was, just as everything else that the two guests did, worrying as well. He took a seat on the chair that I had dragged in from the other room, very deliberately leaving the one that had once been his father's alone. Mustang hesitantly took the seat that Ed had avoided – I'd really have to get into the habit of calling him Roy - after receiving a nod from the older Ed that seemed to convey the message that it was an alright thing to do.

"Mu – _Miss Elric,"_ I was thankful that Ed had gone to the efforts of correcting his slip up "You didn't have to bring this chair in, I would have gotten it."

"Nonsense! You're a guest here. You aid that you haven't eaten in a while, dig in."

The four other people sitting around the table dug into the food with vigour, clearing their first servings and collecting seconds as I watched in amusement, slowly eating my own. At last the stew was gone and we were all lounging around the table, content, relaxed and thoroughly stuffed.

"It has been so long," Edward declared "Since I have had food this good!"

"I've never had food this good, I either need to learn how to cook, visit Gracia more, or tell Hawkeye to step up her game."

"Your Lieutenant makes your meals? How do you live alone, let alone hold authority over people.2

"What do you mean by that Fullmetal?"

"Not much, just that Hawkeye should probably be your superior. Heck, even Havoc could be."

"Oh shuddup, let me enjoy living for once."

"You say that as if I'm the bane of your existence."

"Are you suggesting that you are not?"

"Are you acknowledging me for my success?"

"You're infuriating!"

"Why thank you. May I rub salt into the wound?"

"Please refrain from doing so, Fullmetal."

"I'm gonna do it anyway. I heard you call me a genius earlier."

Roy groaned and drew his head towards the table, heavily placing and resting it between his arms. The fifteen-year-old's laugh was one of victory, the rest of us just laughed in amusement at Roy's expense.

"You're all awful." He declared as he righted his posture "have your book back, Fullmetal. It'll prevent you from making me want to tear my hair out."

"Thanks. You're absolutely right by the way, we already talked earlier about your receding hairline, did we not? You can't afford to yank out any more of your hair, Colonel sh-"

"Edward!" I cut off the profanity before he could continue.

The children laughed as he sheepishly rubbed his left hand on the back of his neck "Sorry, Miss Elric. The colonel is just full of cap, I dare you to spend a week with him without anting to yell just about every profanity you know."

"Now now, Fullmetal. I'm not that bad, your inability to use expletives while we're here will prove that."

"Remind me again just how many languages I speak." Roy paled at the smug look on Edward's face.

"What use is an insult if I don't understand it?" He looked rather meek, as if he very much knew what the answer to his question would be.

"If you don't understand it," The teenager grew smugger as the high, childish laughs increased in volumes "It just proves your lack of intelligence."

I cut in before the good-natured argument could develop into something more "You two have a very strange relationship." The statement was met with wide eyes and rapid blinks.

"It's less of a relationship and more of an acquaintanceship forced by a system greater than the two of us." Mustang told me as Ed's eyes flickered between us both.

"Meaning?"

"What, the greater system?"

"Exactly."

Edward took his turn to cut in, look at me with ancient eyes and speak in a heavy voice "Nothing that you'd ned to know. Nothing that wouldn't worry you." The second sentence was muffled as he spoke into his hand, I had to very much guess what he had said. Oh, how I hoped my guess was far off.

 **A/N - So Trisha's suspicious and Ed and Roy are getting careless. Also, I'll address the reason why this took me so long to update. The wifi on my laptop decided that it didn't want to connect and I've only just gotten it back. I'm sorry for the wait is anyone was waiting for an update - let's just hope that it doesn't happen again.**

 **~We'reAllABitOdd**


	8. Growing impatience

Once the boys had been put to bed I had sat with Ed and Roy in the living room with more tea and waited for them to say something - anything - about their living situations back in their own time. Once again Ed had quickly gulped down the hot beverage before turning to Roy. "We've been reading Hohenheim's research but he doesn't have a word on time travel _anywhere._ I doubt that there are any alchemists that do, except maybe the man who sent us here and I doubt he has the sanity to be much help. Besides, he's all the way in Central."

"You'd know a fair bit about unhelpful alchemists, would you not?"

Edward exhaled in frustrations, squeezed his eyes tightly shut and grunted. I very much picked it up as a message bout me.

"Unhelpful alchemists? Just where have you been and who have you met?"

"It's irrelevant." They both dismissed me completely.

"I didn't even _try_ to commit the circle to memory." Roy complained "I just jumped with you to save that man. We didn't know what would happen with the circle so I didn't think it would be worth remembering. I never had any intentions to use it."

"I remember some of it but I've got a fair few questions about most of it. So many of those symbols were so very contradictory, others I'm sure do not exist outside of that circle. But, more importantly, why was it drawn in blood? Is it like a blood seal that has to be or was it just an action that needn't be taken but was? How would we do it if we needed blood?"

"You're filling my head with things I hadn't even thought about Fullmetal. What are we going to do?"

"Stay here until we figure something out - potentially permanently - and hope that Al and Hawkeye don't think that we're dead?"

"Hawkeye would probably think that I was useless in the situation - fucking rain - and Al would think that something bad, worse than what ever the hell this is, happened."

"In short, we're doomed."

"Why would Al think something so bad had happened? You just went to visit a friend - right?"

"Of course, of course. he's just a worry wart is all." The statement rushed out of his mouth and his hand rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. The entire suspicious action was followed by a clearly fake laugh that dissipated after a couple of forced chuckles.

"Tell me the truth!" I was growing more and more frustrated by the second and the annoyance burst through my mouth like water through a dam. "You've been lying from the offset! How did you end up here? Why would Al be so worried? Why are you treating Al and I the way you are? Why do you call my son Fullmetal? Why do you wear gloves? You may be Edward Elric, but I haven't a clue who you are!" My throat burned and my eyes were streaming.

"Mum," Ed had moved to the arm of the chair I was sitting on and carefully placed a comforting hand on my back before speaking in a tranquilising cadence.

"Don't mum me! I want the truth!" Both froze and stared at me.

"I'm going to bed." Ed declared in a shaky voice as he left on shaky legs, closely shadowed by his acquaintance. All my energy left my body in a rush and I collapsed over the arm of the chair. I stared up at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the plaster and remembering to change the lightbulb, for it kept flickering. I decided I couldn't quite be bothered to go to my room to sleep. As I felt my consciousness slowly drifting away I heard muffled words though the door to the study. The muffled words, similar to the single one I had heard before, were melancholy. They helped cement my suspicion.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I've hurt you before, I have you back and now I've hurt you again. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Those were the words that lulled me to sleep that night. As my eyes fluttered to a close I spoke myself and hoped Ed could hear, though I knew he could not "I'm the one that needs to be sorry. What kind of mother am I if I let you live a life that you can't even tell me about. I'm so sorry."

The next morning I woke up late, a blanket draped over me that had not been there when I went to sleep and a glass of water on the table next to me. the house smelled of food and a glance at the clock told me that the boys had already left for school. I really was a lousy mother.

"You're awake?" Roy emerged from the study, books in hand. "Fullmetal made the boys breakfast and is doing the same for us right now. He should be done in a moment." I stared at the man groggily and blinked the haze of sleep out of my eyes.

"My son is taking care of my sons and making breakfast for me?"

"I would have done it but I can't cook for shit." He took a seat on the armchair and flipped a book open. "All these notes and nothing that will be of any help."

"Mum, Mustang! Breakfast!" Ed called from the other room. I wandered in, still definitely not awake, and looked at the three plates of food and mugs on the table. I glanced at two of the mugs as I walked to my own and scrunched up my nose.

"Black coffee? I hate coffee, we wouldn't have had any. Where did you get this?"

"Oh, I popped down to the market and hoped that no one recognised me. Though I doubt me walking around with my hood up and my head down made me seem like the most trustworthy person ever."

"I'd hardly call you trustworthy, hood or not." Roy laughed as Ed looked at him with an emotion that was none to positive playing on his features.

"I may not be trustworthy but you're certainly hypocritical." Ed retorted calmly before eating his breakfast like a wild animal. Once again, he gulped down the entirety of a boiling hot beverage in a single mouthful and lent back on his chair in contentment as Roy and I continued to eat.

I looked him over "Where does it all go?" I whispered to Roy.

"Not a clue." He responded as he sipped his own coffee "Thank god, I was getting tired of tea."

"Don't thank god, thank Ed." Ed told him "After all, I'm the one that went down to the market in the early hours of the morning while your lazy ass was asleep."

"Oh, shut up Fullmetal. You're ruining it."

"What's 'it'?" He made air quotes around the word 'it' that screamed "Teenager".

"My good mood!" he snapped.

"Oh shut up and fetch my book would ya?"

"Ugh. Fine."

"Oh, I'll get it. Where is it?" I told them upon seeing Roy's abundant reluctance to obey.

"It should be on the desk in the study, the green one farthest to the left."

"Okay, I'll be back in a minute. It's the least I can do since you made breakfast and sent the boys to school."

"It's really not a problem." He reassured me.

"Neither is this." I stated as I stood up from my chair. I made my way to the study, looking around the room. There were piles of books everywhere that I was fairly certain had either already been read or deemed as completely irrelevant. As I picked up the book Ed had requested a silver glint on the chair under the desk caught my eye.


	9. The first of what is yet to come

I was more than intrigued and felt as though _something_ were physically forcing me to take the actions that I did. I knew that it was wrong, that the item on the chair that had caught my eye belonged to either Ed or Roy. I knew I was invading their privacy but they had built up iron walls around everything! I had merely stumbled across what appeared to be a crack in the barricade.

I drew back the chair and looked at the small object that sat there in a way that was far too innocent. I tried to push my memory back to moments ago, searching for the finer details available in the vivid imagery supplied by my short term memory. It was almost an absolute certainty that Roy had his pocket watch on his person, whereas Ed did not. The unease that had arrived with my guests stirred violently, deep within my stomach.

The watch was glistening silver, appearing brand new in that sense but aged in another. I ran my thumb over the familiar insignia, watching a my pale skin skimmed the shining surface. I could feel my thumb gently dipping with each of the many divots worn in to the material with overuse.

I had become convinced that this watch was my son's and the very thought made my knees buckle beneath me. I caught myself before I could fall and unsettle the haphazard stacks of tomes that filled the room. I grabbed a fistful of the skirt of my dress and gripped it as hard as I could to prevent myself from crying out at the rather awful realisation that had very suddenly unloaded itself onto me. I could feel what seemed to be a physical weight on my shoulders settle decidedly into place. I suspected the force that had urged me to invade the privacy of my own son had made itself a residence there.

I didn't doubt that the watch had seen battle after battle. I attempted to flick it open to check on the quality of the clock face and see how much time I had spent gaping at the watch and the realisation it had brought forth. However, I found myself unable to do anything at all. The watch itself resisted against the very best of my efforts until I finally was forced to concede to the inanimate object. The fabrication of the lies my son had told me since the second he had came.

I think it was then that I realised that the name Fullmetal was not a name bestowed upon my son by the people whom he aided, rather by the Fuhrer himself. Would it be a bad thing to admit that I began to think of my son as another military dog, just like Roy who was no doubt his superior?

I stumbled back to the kitchen, book clutched tightly in my hand. The book fell on the table in front of me as I tripped into the room after a walk that seemed much longer than it could have possibly been. My hands followed soon after. The resounding bang caused by each was a reason of concern for Edward and I could see why he would view the situation in such a light as I as certain he was. I knew I looked far less than great, I'm sure I had gone a bright, unappealing red at some point as I bit on my lip to stop it quivering (the metallic taste it drew out was certainly not helpful as I tried to clear my head). My hands shook as badly as my lip would have done had I not restrained it from doing so and my knees were knocking together. I looked up at Edward in desperation and suddenly just how distraught the event seemed to make him made less and less sense. It appeared he was awaiting something, something very specific to come upon me. He stared forwards with wide eyes that seemed slightly detatched, leaving Roy to help us both.

"Trisha! Sit down and speak to us! Tell us what's wrong! We'll fix it." I mumbled an incoherent string of nothing as I waited for the quivers that unrelentingly flooded my being to die down by some modicum.

"Fullmetal - you don't know it's _that._ Take your own seat and listen, something tells me that something interesting is brewing."

As I took my seat laboriously I heard a clatter - a sound that was very distinctively metallic. It was more than suspicion when a sense of dread crept slowly up, from the bottom of my spine to the last of my vertebrae. The watch had fallen from where I had hidden it in the folds of my skirt.

"Shit!" Both alchemists yelled as they simultaneously took in my face and the scene.

"When the fuck did I leave that in there? No no no no no no no..." Edward addressed no one as he spoke, rather choosing to reprimand himself with a range of language I prefer to suspend from my memories.

Roy, however, appeared at least a little triumphant "I knew it would be something interesting." He declared smugly, seeming to fit the profile of a young child far more than that of a colonel at that point.

"Explain!" The word escaped my lips, laced with venom that I regretted putting into it as the grating tone creeped in through my ears.

"What is there to explain?" Roy asked, genuinely sounding as if he was completely befuddled by my demand.

"This!" I snapped again and raised the watch violently. The chain attached swung around, appearing rather hypnotic. I forced myself to remove my eyes from it, instead, choosing to seek answers from Roy and Edward.

"It is the mark of a state alchemist, Trisha. I am fairly certain that you already know, going by the nature of your arrival, but this watch belongs to Edward." It was the first time that I had heard Roy regarding my son with his given name and it had taken me aback. The entire situation appeared considerable heavier in nature on all parts.

I decided at that moment, as I watched Edward act so much like the boy I had raised and yet so very different, that a little repetition was certainly necessary in some situations. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" His voice sounded slightly hoarse but it was perfectly clear and certainly not a sound that I woulda allow to slip through my memories. "Mum, I'm Edward Elric." I urged him to continue, watching him rearrange the way he had been seated into a rather contortionist-like pose he must have found comfortable (despite the obvious way that it should have posed an incredibly difficult challenge to assume)

"I am _Major_ Edward Elric. I am _The Fullmetal Alchemist!"_ The newfound confidence he displayed did prove to be an asset when it came to the planned interrogation.


	10. Abstract art

There was a figurative torch illuminating their faces, making mustang's skin glow like the surface of the moon as it shone in the sun's reflection, making Ed's shine like pure gold. Both of their eyes were wide but I couldn't trace fear - those eyes were challenges. I cocked an eyebrow and watched Edward casually lean onto his arm as it was set on the table top. It was a battle of wills: two against one, where only one of the parties participating seemed to have anything to gain.

Though they certainly had something to _retain._

The room had been plunged into impenetrable silence, even the abundance of birds that usually fluttered by the windows at those hours had ceased their chirping and left our presence entirely. My hand began to twitch as the silence added to the great weight that had not relinquished itself of its home upon my shoulders. Both Ed and Roy caught the slight waver in my demeanour and allowed satisfied grins to touch their lips in a way that only made my hand twitch more and my feet to tap on the dusty floor beneath them (I'd really have to get around to sweeping).

It was obvious that I had lost but my admit at defeat did not cause them to concede. They looked on at me with unfeeling eyes, blank faces and unreadable body language. "Yes?" The word was empty, hollow, but it did invite me to manoeuvre the conversation slightly.

"The Fullmetal Alchemist? What's the real story?" It was a losing battle, attempting to keep my demeanour as entirely not-compelling as they had made their own. Their mouths opened and a few syllables that told me nothing escaped.

My forced demeanour crumbled like sandstone in my hands as I realised I would finally _know._ That wasn't what I felt as though I should be wanting to know as a parent - the way that my teenage son lived, the reason he dressed how he did (scared too show what he looked like underneath the layers), the way his eyes stared at me as they did. I knew that it shouldn't be a wish of a woman to make sure that her teenage son wasn't standing on his deathbed at 15.

Then there was a distinct click, a creak and little footsteps across he hard wooden floors that ran through the whole house. I released the air I had inhaled and held in a single, smooth exhalation. I followed it up with a sigh as I placed my head between my arms on the table. I wasn't going to find out - at least not then.

"We aren't finished here!" I told the alchemists as I heard the return of my sons.

"We would expect nothing less." Mustang reassured me, sounding human again suddenly.

"Leave this - at least for now. We're stuck in a rut."

Roy and I both knew what he meant. their alchemic research had came to a standstill, they were stranded in a time that was not their own for in indefinite time period. Though I couldn't help but feel as though I was missing something. I saw but I never really looked. After all, it' an easy thing to see now, as I look back, that I was missing so much because I never _looked_ for what I knew was there.

I had walked through the house, feeling as dead as Ed and Roy had looked when I tried to retrieve answers, truthful ones, hoping that I didn't look the way I thought I did. There was an odd disruption to the routine the years had engrained into my mind. The routine where the boys would return home with complaints about school and a collection of jokes that Winry had told them. How could I focus on something so mundane when everything was proving itself not to be?

Ed and Roy could lie. They could lie to the boys as they told them parts of the fabricated story that I had been fed by them. They could say that they had trained together and known each other for years as they had me. It was neither the hardest nor easiest lie to see through but I could see that the younger Edward, beginning to turn his focus to a book after growing irritated at the words he refused to - no, _could not -_ believe filed from Roy's mouth and directly into his ears.

Edward was laughing with Alphonse, treating him just a he normally did: like a paper doll. Still, I smiled when I saw Al's head fall in slumber and the rise and fall of his chest became more consistent. Ed's left hand drifted to the back of the sleeping boy's head - gently running through is hair.

That was another thing that added to the list of many that were odd. Ed was right handed but he never interacted with human nor pen with it. I had never once seen him pull off that white glove. I had ever seen him take off that black jacket.

I knew nothing of the boy that called himself my son. I felt as though I were watching a stranger coddle my son as I kept my eyes fixed on the image. Ed gently set Al on the sofa a while later - I didn't even realise I had been completely lost within my thoughts for such a long amount of time until I was forcefully removed from them - he took care to rest the boy's head on one of the threadbare cushions before turning. he chuckled slightly at his younger self, he had fallen asleep, his head in his book. my son myself that time before looking at Edward and Roy.

"Come on Mum." The word was still tender and new on Edward's lips it would seem. Though such an idea made o sense at the time as I looked on, trying to unscramble the jigsaw that my son had become and finding it far beyond my ability.

I followed, on their heels like an obedient puppy, ironic considering the two I followed were what the nation commonly called dogs.

"Fullmetal?" I asked again as soon as we could confirm we were out of the boys' hearing range.

"What can we say? It' just the convention of state names. You specialise in alchemy with metal ores, you receive the name Fullmetal." Mustang told me, all sincerity and authority as the words brushed passed his smugly smiling lips.

"Earlier you said he wasn't a specialist though." The look on his face as I noticed his slip up was comical.

"We call it irony." Ed said that and only that as both refused to elaborate further.

"How did you end up here?" I couldn't help but doubt everything they told me after what I had found.

"This bastard called me out on a mission to arrest an alchemist who was playing with human transmutation. Things happen and you know what happened next." Edward shrugged and I felt my own shoulders grow heavier.

"My fifteen-year-old son sent to capture a potentially dangerous criminal?" I received a mere not of confirmation in response but it was enough, more than "Was this your fault Roy?" I would be lying if I hadn't worried that the volume in which I had spoken would wake the boys.

"It wasn't."

"You're doing an awfully good job of defending yourself without Hawkeye here? She train you?"

"Now now, Fullmetal. We may be dogs but we are not feral. Or, at least, I'm not."

"It was an order from a higher up." Ed confirmed as he braced himself for the next in my list of questions. At that moment I knew too little to ask anything too specific so I stuck to the one thing I knew had an answer.

"When?"

"You were eleven when we first met, right?"

"Yep."

"Twelve when you took the test?"

"Just. You should remember, it's Elysia's birthday too."

"And you passed at twelve?" It was ore than a shock to the system to hear the age at which he had sold himself to the military, titled himself a dog, became a human weapon.

"After a very _unusual_ test, he did." Mustang replied.

"I won't blame you." I said as the man looked as though he were trying to either shrink or leave, to disappear from my sight in someway or another "It's my fault entirely! Ed, why did I let you do this? Are you still suffering because of what I did?"

"My work is no reason to suffer. And, besides, the only times I suffer are because of my own idiocy. That idiocy that has done so much." He stood and left abruptly, appearing years older as he shuffled from the room with squeaky shoes and a face hidden in a thicket of shadows cast by his unruly bags,

"Goodnight to you too Fullmetal!" mustang called out after the brooding exit Edward made.

"What- what did he do?" The way my voice shook; the way my hands shook; the way my legs shook; the way my teeth chattered; the way my fists clenched; the way my stomach knotted itself. it was al too much to bear. I could hardly wait to receive a response as I felt everything worsen and my feet itch to remove me from the world my son lived in, two small fractals had passed errand so much was revealed that it made me sick to my stomach to so much as consider the things I would probably never hear a word about.

"It is not my place to tell you, Trisha. but here is something that I can. Ask anyone from our time, you son's name is a household one."

I heard the words but I could not see his face as both my vision and my head spun in fast circles that distorted the wold around me into some kind of abstract art piece that one could not decipher anything from. Even now I wonder - Is it my son and his acquaintance who are the abstract art pieces or is it the masks that they wear?


	11. Distortion and darkness

I didn't ever think it would be like _this._ It seemed the secrets were weighing on Ed as much as they were me. He hadn't taken much persuasion the next morning, after the boys departure for school, to reveal just what it was that he had diligently hidden the night before.

Those secrets were on display in front of both Pinako and myself. Pinako had came over to talk to our time-travelling guests, to find out just what was happening, but she had not come prepared for what she saw. it was rather disconcerting, Roy's complete nonchalance.

The dull sheen of automail was both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. It wasn't very often I saw it on somebody, I never touched it, but I did see it rather frequently when I visited Pinako's house. I often admired the delicate artistry of the prosthetic limbs and appendages but seeing it on my son made it lose those qualities, instead it was a monstrosity. the metal was attached at the shoulder, bolted to his torso and surrounded with scars that were frighteningly old.

My hands were cupping the lower half of my face as my mouth refused to close and my eyes did the same. Pinako had quickly gotten over the initial shock and was, instead, manhandling a laughing Edward as she examined his steel appendage. Roy didn't help my mind settle. "His leg's the same." He was still awfully calm and he either didn't realise quite what he was doing or he enjoyed my uncomfortable shock.

Of course, not even his replacement limb looked to be in pristine condition. I could hear Pinako tutting as she examined each and every one of the numerous dents and scratches that covered the limb, her disapproval showing through even as she examined the masterful limb.

"It's incredible!" She breathed in awe "Who made this?"

He smiled widely, it seemed as though he had forgotten the fact that I would be in shock "Your granddaughter."

"Winry!?" It was unclear whether the loud yell of the name was done so in pride of questioning.

She received only a confirmative mumble as an answer and returned to studying Ed's right arm.

"Your arm, your watch, apparently your leg. What happened? What did I allow to happen?"

He glanced up at me from where he was sitting on the floor, his automail extended away from him to allow Pinako to examine it further "You know, Mum, you didn't let anything happen. I promise. it's all my fault." He sounded resigned to the answer but there was not a trace of doubt in his voice, he believed every word he uttered.

"Edward Elric!" e straightened and pulled his at from Pinako's grip, quickly clambering to his feet as I stood on my own and looked at him face to face "I am your mother! It's my turn to promise you something! okay? I promise, this is all - at least indirectly - my fault!"

"And how exactly can you promise something so incredibly out-there when you don't know what it is you are assigning yourself the blame for?"

"Because I am your mother."

"Meaning?"

"Have you forgotten just what a mother is Edward? Do you not visit me anymore?" Roy flinched slightly but I didn't have the time to ponder just what he had flinched at.

"I'm going to go train. Oi! Bastard! Come and spar with me!" And just like that he had closed up again, the wall had been rebuilt around him and there was no longer any sign that it was overflowing. They left for the front garden as I sat down heavily back where I had been before. Pinako sat next to me.

"Is that Edward or is it a dog?" I didn't know what to make of her question, I didn't know whether it was an insult or something to make me think.

" _He_ is Edward." I didn't know whether I was being argumentative or submissive, all I knew was that I wished that they had never crashed into our study, I wished that I never knew a thing.

"Then don't treat him like a dog. Treat him like your son."

"How, Pinako? Aging is meant to be gradual, I'm meant to spend time adjusting to his growth as it happens, he's not meant to have aged ten years in a day."

"You try and try until you finally adjust."

"How long will it take me to adjust?" I could hear the desperation pitifully lacing my voice as I croaked a whisper that I wasn't sure could be heard over the loud, alchemic crackle and the thud of metal that accompanied Ed and Roy's sparring.

"When do Ed and Roy get home?" that was one of the things I hated the most and Pinako knew it - answering one question with another.

"How would I know?" Maybe I was a hypocrite but I wasn't apologising.

"Exactly." She smiled triumphantly, even her oddly vertical ponytail reacting to her emotion "Now go and speak to your son, Trisha! Adapt and adjust to that difficult teenager!"

"Why couldn't I have a normal son?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Honestly Pinako?"

"Honestly Trisha."

It was rather incredible, how quickly the entire tone of conversation had changed and how easily Pinako had settled my shock. That shock had been magnified by Mustang beforehand so I was fairly certain that it was something of a challenge. I obeyed the older woman and left the house, embracing the sudden burst of heat that met me as I did. When I looked past the metal arm, sharpened with alchemy into a lethal-looking blade that seemed far too intense for a sparring match, it was a spectacle that needed to be enjoyed. It was a form of entertainment unlike any other.

I called out to them and watched as they tried to halt the momentum instantly. They failed but it was an amusing thing to see. Mustang had stepped back from Ed's blade and straight into a hidden trap that Ed had transmuted earlier and Ed himself had to dive and roll away from an onslaught of flames that Roy hadn't had time to stop.

"Hi?" Edward still seemed to be uneasy, not sure what I was going to say and unaware of the conversation Pinako and I had held.

"Hey." I smiled in the same way I did to my five-year-old and watched him respond with that feral smile that was becoming familiar "Care to talk?"

"Sure. What are you gonna do for the time being, Shithead?"

"Study."

"Good call."

"Ed?" I regained his attention and went to walk with him by my side. But something happened, something terrifying and disorienting.

My head began to swim, my vision blurred and blackened, and my knees gave out under me as I collapsed unceremoniously. I didn't know what was happening, I just knew that it wasn't good.

 **A/N I'm sorry for taking so long to update. I never had plans to discontinue this story or put it on hiatus I've just been busy lately so I haven't had the time to write. I'll also apologise for the fact that this chapter is lacking somewhat in the length department, I had plans for where I wanted it to end and I didn't want to clutter it too much before then. Thanks as always for the reviews, follows, and favourites. I wish that I could reply to guest reviews but I can't so I'll acknowledge a couple of things now. The first hug: Trisha was in shock at that point, she had just met her son from ten years in the future so she wasn't really paying attention to the automail. Ed and Al's memories: I do have a plan for this and I have from the beginning. it's not the most satisfying of solutions, however, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.**

 **~We'reAllABitOdd**


	12. You're not Icarus

I could see only darkness, a sea of back that seemed to ripple just as a sea would. Everything span and a few odd splashes of colour and offensive brightness began to infiltrate my impossibly calm sea of nothingness. Gradually, the blood rushing through my ears was replaced with what could only have been breathing and a few mumbles that I could not possibly hear as coherent. The sounds were soft but the light, increasing slowly but surely was sharp enough to cut.

My eyes flickered open but I could not see. The light was blinding, a shield of white that contrasted the peaceful black I had experienced before. Then the colours started emerging, slowly at first, red here, blue there, gold over there, and there it was again: black. Things began to refine themselves at an even slower face, unintelligible blurs became rough shapes, rough shapes gradually became more human, more normal. Eventually, I was at least half awake.

There was a familiar face, tear filled and terrified, looking over me in concern. It was a cruel, cruel role reversal. I, as a mother, was meant to crowd my sons bedside because he had fallen ill, I was meant to take care of him; things happening the other way around was so very _wrong._

"Mum?"

"What, what's happening? What's the time? What's wrong with me?" Subconsciously I was directing the, admittedly rather cliché, questions to Edward because he _knew_ , he had treated me like porcelain, he _had_ to.

"It's the onset." The words were nothing more than a whisper that forcefully wrenched their way from his throat painfully. I wanted to follow up with another question even though that would only suffice as an answer for one of my original three but he turned his head and focused his reminiscing eyes to a spot in the distance, I was far away but clear he was focusing on one thing specifically.

"You've been out for two hours. As for what's wrong with you - I wish I knew then and I wish I know now." His reflection in the widow appeared to be crying, the sudden downpour outside sending trails of tear-like water down the glass.

"I - I'm dead. Aren't I?" The words were painful to hear and I couldn't help but to choke as the clumsily made their way into a pitiful existence from which they would soon disappear, as, it seemed, would I. I didn't wait for confirmation, the weight that had settled upon my shoulders when I had first found the watch increased tenfold as the weighty silence crushed everyone in the room. "How long do I have left?"

"Truth is gonna hate me more than he already does, huh?" the humour was dry, directed at Roy and lost entirely on me "2 years, but your here now. You're here now. You're here now." He lost himself in the repetition of those words and I suddenly felt empty. Maybe I was already as dead in my own eyes as I was in Ed's and Roy's.

"The onset, huh?" I mulled over the idea "You and Al, when did you fid out?"

"We never saw you stand again once we did." He admitted "But you're here now. I'm here now. isn't this how things are meant to be? Mum?"

It hit me then, like a ton of bricks "Roy's been researching, he never stopped looking for a way back, but when was the last time you did the same?"

"Do you blame me? I wanted to see you smile again," The look on Roy's face became bittersweet, an expression born from sentimental, nostalgic familiarity "And once I saw it once I became addicted."

I was shocked to silence, this was not what a teenager was meant to say, not what a teenager was meant to look like- that much desperation belonged only in the eyes of one who was to violently be made a corpse moments later.

"Do you know the story of Icarus?" I absentmindedly noticed that Roy and Pinako had left the room without sparing a word and that Ed had carefully seated himself at the foot of my bed "The angel who flew on wings made of wax? Well, one day he flew to close to the sun, his wings melted and he fell back to the earth. You could say that humans are the closest things that there are to gods but we're so far from. I know that, I know it all to well, but I don't want to leave. I'm selfish and I'm trying to defend myself. "Is there a rebound for a transmutation like this? What is it? Is the blood a necessity? Can we control this thing at all?" But, worst of all "I'm sure Al's doing fine with Hawkeye." I'm meant to be smart but I've been so stupid for so long. I'm sorry and I'll apologise in advance because I've been lying since day one. I didn't memorise the circle entirely but there was vital bit of information I never shared with Mustang. I'll go tell him now and we should be gone soon. But before I leave," He clapped his hands together other the potted plant that sat in the corner. "I couldn't give this to you, your last wish. So I'll do it now as a form of apology." he handed me the delicate corsage.

"Just like Hohenheim made." I awed.

I was surprised at how easily he took the statement, how he absolutely did not resist as he normally would "Yeah, just like Hohenheim, just like you wanted."

"You're not the only one who needs to apologise." He turned both curious and shocked, watching me with another look I was startled to see, a look that aged him "I didn't tell you a thing when I needed to, when you could help. I sent you down Icarus' path. But there's a difference between you and Icarus, I'm sure of it. If your wax wings melt there's something you can do that Icarus never did - _never could._ Edward Elric, _The Fullmetal Alchemist,_ you can build yourself wings of metal to replace those made of wax. You can keep flying until you _reach_ the sun. You have a goal, don't you? A reason why you became a dog? I'm not going to ask why, I feel as though I'd rather die without knowing, but you are _not_ Icarus, not at all."

I remember those few day after when I had reluctantly told my young sons the barest of information about what was actually happening. It was hardly surprising that the two young alchemic prodigy's wished to look at the note and learn from two sate alchemists - famous ones at that. Then there was the pride Ed felt in knowing what he would become, this teenager with a fashion sense I dreaded but he had secretly admired since day one and a reputation that spread nationwide as well as a, in the words of Ed who had later been scolded for them "Badass" second name.

The older Ed had given up on his foolish desires to stay, he had realised just what was happening. It was good to see him scribbling away with Roy, reading like the bookworm he was, and occasionally exchanging a few brief words with the colonel that were lost on me.

It was a few days later that it finally happened. They finally emerged from the study with messy hair and wrinkled clothes. they had spent hours sprawled haphazardly across the floor and both were constantly pushing their hands through their hair in frustration. There wee dark circles under their eyes and a slight droop to their eyebrows as they tried to keep their eyes open.

Yet there were broad smiles playing at their lips, showing off white teeth in such a comfortable way it seemed drastically atypical for both. Though that only increased the absolute spectacle that the image was. "We did it!"

They had instantly set themselves to the task of drawing a large transmutation circle on the study floor after receiving my permission to do so and convincing me that the blood they had seen at first was not necessary at all, rather just a special touch added by the man who had drawn the original circle that had thrown them into the deep end of this terrible mess in the first place.

At long last, and not before a wave of departure, they left in a flash of red light that disturbed me to no end but I had been told to prepare for.

It was funny, actually, how unconcerned I was in the matter of my own demise. It was even stranger that I felt the same way after seeing just what my eldest son had made himself into - or at least in the public eye. Or maybe that was it? The way he appeared in the public eye wasn't what mattered to me as his mother. the way he appeared to ones who knew him, ones who took the time to look past the long, gold hair; the gaudy outfit; the Napoleon complex; the slightly, unintentionally threatening expressions; and the obsession he had with the science he had made his philosophy, the people who would really matter, was different, greatly so. As I watched them disappear I decided that, yes, that was it: I wasn't worried because I looked past my son's career and I could see just who he had become. If I had lived to the day his name became known I would have declared my pride at any given chance - that was one of the regrets I held over my early death.


	13. Epilogue

Truth smiled at the alchemists again, empty apart from the limbs he had stolen from the one who still didn't understand why they were both visiting his gate. Apparently Truth picked up on his confusion. "Mr. Alchemist, do you still not know why you're both at your gate? It was your memory, was it not, you just visited. But you are troublesome, Mr. Alchemist, you spill secrets so easily among family. I won't waste my time making your mother forget, she'll hide that secret even better than she did her illness, she has a foot in the grave already. But you and your brother? How very troublesome you are, Mr. Alchemist! I suppose I will have to tamper with both of their memories, rather a shame for you, is I not? You aren't the most fond of me, are you? And yet you keep coming back! You don't even get the pleasure of seeing anything this time round!"

"You say that as if it's my fault." Ed scoffed as Mustang watched the strange figure intently, the first time he had ever seen it for more than a few seconds.

"Then whose fault is it Mr. Alchemist? Do you never learn. I believe I am right to say this - " The gate opened and they were sucked through, dragged by black hands that gripped onto them tightly and did not allow them to see a thing "See you again soon!" It was almost mocking, the way that Truth waved off the Fullmetal Alchemist with his own hand as the elbow of his own arm rested on the knee of his own leg.

Once back in Amestris there were glances exchanged before a few words were spoken. "So that's Truth? Annoying little bastard, isn't he?"

"Hey, Colonel Shithead, people always say that the Truth hurts, I could tell you that better than most. Don't go back there and find it out for yourself."

"I'll try."

"No! You will do better than try!"

"You've been rather odd lately, Fullmetal."

"Everything's been odd lately, Dumbass."


End file.
